‘26/11 Mumbai terror attack was premeditated’

New Delhi: Evidence in 26/11 Mumbai terror
attack case involving Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab and nine slain
terrorists clearly showed it to be a "pre-meditated" assault
on the country`s commercial capital by Pakistani terrorists,
guided by their handlers from across the border, the Supreme
Court was told Thursday.

The prosecution said the recovery of a diary with
contents in Urdu and the intercepts of telephonic conversation
among the ten terrorists and their handlers in Pakistan
established that the terror attack in Mumbai, in which 166
people were killed, was "pre-planned and pre-arranged."

"From the diary and intercepts of telephonic conversation
between the terrorists and their handlers, three things are
clear that the attack in Mumbai on November 26, 2008 was
pre-meditated involving ten terrorists who were from
Pakistan," former Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam and
Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told a bench of
justices Aftab Alam and C K Prasad.

Subramaniam said it was disclosed from the diary which
was recovered from the boat, Kuber, used by the terrorists to
reach Mumbai, that they had come together and on reaching the
city, they got divided into five groups with specific targets.

"This diary clearly proves that the ten terrorists had
come in a group and attacked Mumbai. They were from Pakistan.
It was a pre-planned and pre-arranged attack as after reaching
Budhawar Park they divided themselves into five groups and
attacked their respective targets", the Maharashtra government
counsel said while seeking the apex court`s endorsement to the
death sentence awarded to 24-year-old Kasab, the sole convict
in 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.

The prosecution said on reaching Budhawar Park, Kasab and
other Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist Abu Ismaile took a taxi and
proceeded towards Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway
station which bore the major brunt of their design.

Subramaniam said while proceeding towards the CST, Kasab
planted bomb beneath the driver seat which exploded after they
alighted from the taxi on reaching their destination.

He said Kasab and his associate indulged in
indiscriminate firing at the CST, killing 52 people.

The prosecution said while the attack was launched at the
Hotel Taj at the Gateway of India, the terrorists were
interacting with their Pakistani handlers and the intercepted
conversation clearly showed that they (handlers) asked them
(terrorists) as to "why they did not sink the Kuber boat".

Subramaniam said the Pakistani handlers also sought
confirmation about the killing of the navigator of Kuber, Amar
Singh Solanki, who was beheaded by Kasab.

The diary also disclosed that Kasab was known by the name
Mujaheed to other terrorists.

Further, the premeditated attack was clear from the diary
in which references have been made about the longitude and
latitude relating to the location of Mumbai and Karachi, they
said.

The Maharashtra government had yesterday said the arrest
of Kasab had proven crucial as he disclosed that the
conspiracy in 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case was hatched in
Pakistan.

Kasab has pleaded with the Supreme Court to commute his
death sentence to life imprisonment.

The apex court had on October, 10 last year stayed the
death sentence of Kasab.

In the special leave petition (SLP) challenging the
Bombay High Court judgement, which had confirmed Kasab`s death
sentence, Kasab had claimed he was brainwashed like a "robot"
into committing the heinous crime in the name of "God" and
that he does not deserve capital punishment owing to his young
age.

Kasab, who is lodged in Arthur Road prison in Mumbai,
had moved the SLP through the jail authorities.

Kasab, along with nine other Pakistani terrorists, had
landed in south Mumbai on November 26, 2008 night after
travelling from Karachi by sea and had gone on a shooting
spree at various city landmarks.

While Kasab was captured alive, the other terrorists in
his group had been killed by security forces during the
counter-terror operations. He was sentenced to death by a
special anti-terror court on May 6, 2010.

The Bombay High Court had on February 21, last year,
upheld the trial court`s order of death sentence to Kasab for
the "brutal and diabolical" attacks aimed at "destabilising"
the government.

Kasab`s death penalty was upheld on charges of criminal
conspiracy, waging war against the nation and various other
provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the anti-terror law --
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.